It's been a while since I mentioned it, but do you know how I became a light novel author?
Spite! :D
It was back in 2017 and a very nice person had gifted me a copy of Splatoon 2, which I got into with gusto because a bunch of my friends were playing it. A lot of said friends on twitter were talking about the cool fashion options but bemoaning the fact that there weren't any maid uniforms available, so that got me thinking... I was making a lot of fake light novel covers at the time as an art commission bit, so I figured why not draw one in the little monochrome postcard feature of the game itself? I asked for squid maids and then went off to do other things, getting some nice little dopamine bursts whenever I saw someone comment on my doodle. ^^
And then Nintendo deleted my Splatoon 2 drawing.
Turns out someone somewhere flagged it as advertising (who advertises a book in Splatoon 2 of all things??) and was thus deemed inappropriate for the game. It got deleted and I got a warning.
I was mad. I really liked that pic! I was proud of it!! So I did what any rational person would do: I set out to prove them right out of spite. I was gonna write that book! So I did! Two weeks of hyperfixated writing and illustrating later I had made my first light novel and given it to my patrons as a tier bonus. A week later, I had put it up on itch.
And... people liked it??
I started printing some to bring with me at PAX and other conventions. I sold through my stock. And then I figured, hey... why not make another one? But an original story this time, in a setting of my creation.
Long story short, six years later I've self-published and printed seven light novels, all of which revolve around shy nerds going through transformative experiences and figuring themselves out in the process, with a ton of gender feels involved. It's what I do now?? I make a living (barely, yet somehow) doing this??
(oh yeah my books are here by the way if you want to check them out)
It takes passion to keep a fire going, but it turns out that spite works really well as the initial kindling.
